Creating Your Online Dating Profile – Part 1

As somebody who’s read a profile or two [hundred], I’ve spotted some classic mistakes that have led me to exit out of somebody’s online profile faster than you can say, “Not a chance.” Here are some helpful hints to leave them lingering on your profile.

1) Don’t make it too long or too short

Too long

Not that your life story isn’t incredibly important to me, but it actually isn’t. I don’t even know you; I don’t care about your last relationship or why you prefer Crest toothpaste to Colgate. If the length of your profile rivals that of a novel, it’s probably just not going to get read. I’m already reading a novel, and it’s a heck of a lot better than your profile. And to be perfectly honest, if your long-winded 15-paragraph marathon of an online profile is indicative of just how much you love to talk about yourself, you’re probably not going to have much time to or interest in listening to anything I have to say.

Too short

On the other hand, you do want people to know you’re actually taking this seriously. If in the “favorite things” section you write “I like to do lots of stuff” and in the “about me” section you write something along the lines of “Yeah, I’d like to meet some cool chicks. I don’t really know what I’m looking for. Hit me up with an email if you’re interested,” I can already tell you that I’m NOT interested, because you’ve given me NO insight into your hobbies, interests, career, values, passions, or simply who you are as a person. Keep in mind that the “cool chicks” want to know something about you, and certainly that you’re taking the process seriously, or the “cool chicks” will pass your profile by.

2) Put up good pictures

And by good pictures I mean:

Pictures of you out in the world spending time with friends or family. If the only pictures you upload are self-portraits taken by you in various poses while you’re sitting at your computer, this will make you look, at the worst like a scary stalker, and at the best like a loner with no friends. And even if you in fact are a scary stalker or a loner with no friends, you don’t really want to portray yourself that way.

Pictures that are self-portraits of you with your shirt off posing in the bathroom in front of the mirror. I can already tell your body type more or less from any full-length pictures; if you really think how you look naked is the most important thing to me, you really don’t know women well.

More than one picture. It just helps me get a better idea of your lifestyle and your looks if you put up a diverse variety of pictures. Go for at least four or five pictures of you looking social and non-stalkerish.